Agarau will receive $1,000 and his book will be published by Fordham University Press in 2025.
By Hope Ibiale
Nigerian poet, Adedayo Agarau, has been announced as the Poetic Justice Book Prize winner. The poet was awarded for his manuscript, The Years of Blood. He will receive $1,000, with his book published by Fordham University Press in 2025. Agarau won the prize alongside American poet, Marcella Durand. While Agarau received the Poetic Justice Editors Prize for a BIPOC Writer, Durand clinched the Poetic Justice Prize overall prize for her work, A Winter Triangle.
While announcing the win on his X page, Agarau stated, “I am excited to announce that The Years of Blood has been selected for the Poetic Justice Editors Prize for a BIPOC Writer. I am grateful to Elisabeth Frost and JoAnne McFarland for selecting the book in November 2023. I am also super grateful to @remicawriter (Remica Bingham-Risher), whose mentorship and editorial brilliance opened all the doors for the growth of this manuscript”.
Adedayo Agarau is a Nigerian poet and the Editor-in-Chief of Agbowó. Agarau is a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University and a Cave Canem Fellow. His poems have been featured in Poetry Magazine, Poetry Society of America, World Literature Today and elsewhere. He is the author of the chapbooks, Origin of Names (African Poetry Book Fund, 2020), and The Arrival of Rain (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press, 2020).
The Poetic Justice Prize was created by the Fordham University community to celebrate the transformative power of poetry from different communities. Every year, the organisers select a theme that is relevant to the world. This year’s theme was “Witness”.